Why wait for a weekend takeout? Make these veggie burgers for dinner tonight!! All you need is vegetables, herbs, seasoning spices, burger buns & a few pantry staples. Customize it easily with what you have on hand or to suit your taste buds.

About veggie burger

My easy recipe will help you become a pro in making delicious homemade veggie burgers. When you need to feed the family & kids an exciting dinner, this veggie burger is a great choice. These are tasty & healthier fast-food option that will leave you more than satisfied.   Years ago to stop my little foodie kids from eating the burgers from the fast-food places, I experimented a lot & came up with this recipe. My boys pretty much loved these burgers as they turned out much more delicious than those from the fast-food places. These taste so fresh & are easily customizable. If you try this recipe, you will definitely say a homemade veggie burger is much tastier than the ones from the fast food places. This recipe just takes about an hour for making 4 to 6 burgers including toasting the bun, making veg patties, preparing lettuce, onions, tomato and then the sauce.

How is it made?

A patty in a veggie burger can be made only with veggies, with soya, with beans/legumes or with a mix of any of these. However for this recipe I have used only veggies that are most commonly available like potatoes, carrots, peas and French beans. I made it the same way a veg cutlet is made. This burger recipe is made in 2 parts. The first one is making the burger patties and the other one is assembling. Making these veg burgers is really easy if you plan ahead. I start by steaming the veggies for the burger patties in a steamer or cooker. While they steam I prepare the lettuce, onions and tomatoes for the topping. I usually make the dressing a day ahead and refrigerate so that saves some time. I use a large pan and shallow fry all the 4 to 6 burger patties at one go. This really saves a lot of time rather than frying them in batches. This time I pan fried some and shallow fried some to show you, so did them in batches. The easiest of all these is to grill these in an oven or air fryer in a single batch (if you have a big one). The second part is just assembling & dressing up your burger. On occasions I also make these soya patties, aloo tikki, hara bhara kababs or corn cutlets to use in these veggie burger.

Preparation

Steam vegetables for patties

  1. Start by steaming the veggies in a pot, steamer or cooker. Pour 2½ to 3 cups of water to a pot or steamer/ cooker / Instant pot. Place a trivet or a rack inside and bring the water to a boil on a medium heat. Here is a picture of my pot/steamer with a trivet.
  2. Meanwhile rinse all the vegetables. Here is what I used 250 grams potatoes (2 large or 3 medium, 2 cups cubed) 2 medium carrots (1 heaped cup diced) 6 to 8 french beans (½ cup finely chopped) ½ to ¾ cup green peas (I use frozen). You can also use cauliflower if you like.
  3. Peel and chop potatoes to 1 inch pieces. Chop both ends of the beans & discard. Chop them finely about ¼ inch pieces. Add all of them to the steam basket. If you use fresh peas, add them too at this stage. Place it in the steamer and cover. Steam until half done for about 5 to 7 mins from the time water comes to a rolling boil.
  4. While those steam, peel and chop 2 medium carrot. When the potatoes are half cooked, add the carrots and peas. If using cauliflower you can also add ¾ cup florets.
  5. Cover and steam all of these just until fork tender and not mushy.
  6. To check prick a potato with fork and it should go in easily meaning they are perfectly cooked.

Make veg patties

  1. Cool all these and add them to a large mixing bowl. There should be no drippings of water or stock in these veggies. Add ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt1½ teaspoon ginger paste (or ½ teaspoon ginger powder)½ teaspoon garlic powder (optional, skip if using taco seasoning)1½ teaspoon garam masala (or taco seasoning as needed) ½ teaspoon coriander powder (optional)3 to 4 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander leaves (or any other herbs of choice)1 to 2 green chilies chopped (skip for kids)
  2. Mash all the ingredients with a masher. Please note mashing chilies will make the patties spicy. For lesser heat, add them after mashing the veggies.
  3. Add ½ cup bread crumbs or 1/3 cup powdered poha or sattu (roasted gram flour). Tip: To use besan or rice flour. Dry roast the flour on a medium heat until a nice aroma comes out. Cool it completely. Add it here. I usually like to use powdered poha, if you like to use it refer this post on veg cutlet.
  4. Mix everything well. It is normal for the mixture to be slightly sticky as seen in the picture below. Troubleshooting tip: If it is too moist and sticky, you may add more binding ingredient like bread crumbs or poha powder. But also remember using a lot of binding ingredient is going to alter the taste of the burger patty.
  5. This is how the mixture looks finally, slightly sticky due to the potatoes. At this stage, you can taste test and add more salt or garam masala if you need.
  6. Divide to 4 to 6 equal parts, depending on how thick you want the patty to be.
  7. Flatten the balls to patties of almost the same size as your burger buns. While you flatten if they tend to be too sticky sprinkle some flour on the patties like I did. Keep them aside.

Prepare bread crumbs

  1. Add panko crumbs or bread crumbs to a wide bowl. You can flavor the crumbs or use them directly as is. I do not add anything to the kids’ portion. For the rest I add about ¼ teaspoon red chili powder and little all-spice powder. Do not use a lot as it will settle at the bottom. Tip to make your own: If you do not have the crumbs, then simply toast bread slices on a pan until slightly crisp. Cool and tear them to pieces and add to grinder. Pulse them to coarse crumbs.

Make batter

  1. To a mixing bowl add ½ cup besan (gram flour) or corn starch and ¼ teaspoon salt. Pour water just enough to make a batter that is thick. If you make runny batter the patties will soak up the moisture and if the batter is too thick it won’t coat and spread well over the patty. Take a look at the picture below for consistency.

Breading veggie patty

  1. Dip one patty at a time in the batter completely.
  2. Place it over the bread crumbs or panko crumbs. You can see the batter is quite thick so it creates a proper thick crust over the veggie patty.
  3. Coat it on the other side as well including the sides.
  4. Transfer the patty to a plate. Repeat the steps of dipping each patty in the batter and then in the bread crumbs/ panko crumbs. Place them in a plate and rest for 10 to 15 mins. This helps the crumbs to stick well to the patty there by reducing mess in the pan while frying. Meanwhile prepare the sauce/ dressing.

Make burger sauce

  1. Add ½ cup mayonnaise or greek yogurt (hung curd) to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ to ¾ teaspoon mustard powder, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder and ½ teaspoon black pepper powder. Tip: I used some fresh made yogurt after straining a bit. Yogurt has to be thick otherwise the sauce will drip off the burger. You can refer this post for making hung curd from homemade curd.
  2. Squeeze some lemon juice. Skip lemon if your mayo or yogurt is sour.
  3. Mix everything well and taste the sauce. Adjust any of the ingredients as needed to suit your taste including salt. Set this aside.

Prepare toppings

  1. Lettuce must always be cleaned thoroughly before using to save ourselves form stomach infections. Wash each leaf separately under a slow stream of running water. Place them over kitchen tissues and let them sit in a cool place until all of the water drips. Tip: I make a cleaning solution with 1 part of vinegar with 3 parts of water to clean the lettuce. Sprinkle it over the leaves. Leave it for 5 mins. Wash off thoroughly.
  2. Slice 1 large onion and 2 medium tomatoes to thin circles. Separate the layers of onions. Deseed the tomatoes. Set these aside as well in a cool place.

How to make veggie burger

Pan frying

  1. Heat 1½ tablespoon oil in a pan. When the oil becomes hot, place 2 patties. Rotate the patties with your fingers gently so they coat with the oil in the pan.
  2. Fry them on a medium high heat until the base becomes firm, golden and crisp. Then flip them to the other side gently and fry until crisp & uniformly golden. Towards the end increase the flame as required for a proper golden to brown crust.

Shallow frying

To get uniform crispness and golden color including the sides, shallow frying is suggested. Pan fried patties will not get a golden color on the sides. Shallow fried ones are crisp for longer time and are crisper than the pan fried ones. 27. Pour half cup oil to a small pan and heat it. When the oil becomes hot, gently place the patties in the hot oil. 28. When the base becomes firm and golden gently turn them to the other side and fry until golden & crisp. Remove them to a wired rack to cool. Do not place them directly on the bun. If you want to make them cheese burgers, then place cheese slices over the very hot patty. 29. Once you are done with frying the patties, transfer the oil to a cup. Slice each bun to 2 parts and spread some butter if you prefer. Toast them in the same hot pan. Remove them and set aside. Alternately you can toast them in oven for 5 mins or air fryer for 2 mins at 180 C.

Assembling veggie burger

Before you go ahead with the assembling ensure your lettuce is not dripping water, patties are not too hot and the burger bun is also not hot. Assembling very hot patties in the burger will only make them sweat and lose their crispness. 30. Place the toasted bun and then the veggie patty. You can also spread some ketchup or burger sauce to keep the patty in place. However this is optional. We don’t prefer this as the patty loses its crispness. 31. Next place the lettuce, then the onion and tomatoes. Then top little bit of your favorite sauce, not a lot as it will drip. Spread the sauce over the top slice of your bun and place it over the burger. Your homemade burger is ready to enjoy.

What to serve with burger?

Actually you don’t need anything else as these are super filling. If you are looking to widen your menu, then these potato wedges (oven-baked, air fried & deep fried), crispy corn, Crispy cauliflower 65 (fried & baked) or cheese balls (fried & baked) will go well on the side. Even hot boiled corn tossed with some butter, salt and pepper will be loved by kids.

Ingredients & substitutes

For veggies patties

Vegetables: Use your favorite veggies to suit your palate. Avoid using veggies you don’t like. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, green peas, button mushrooms, broccoli, baby spinach & red pumpkins are some of them we personally like in these vegetable patties. Note that every vegetable is different and does impart a flavour of its own. Like mushroom impart an earthy flavour, sweet potatoes will make the patties taste sweet. So please choose the veggies wisely so they don’t taste off. Spices: If you love the typical Indian flavors, then go ahead and use garam masala just like the way I did here. I have not added any extra spices like coriander powder or cumin powder. Use them if you prefer. On occasions I have also made these with taco seasoning or all spice. Here is my own taco seasoning for these veggie patties – ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ to 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (low heat), and ¼ teaspoon dried oregano & 1 teaspoon cumin powder. Poha powder vs bread crumbs vs flour: Powered poha is just ground flattened rice. It is always my favorite to use in any patties as it absorbs moisture and binds the ingredients very well. It also does not deviate from the flavours like bread crumbs or flour. I prefer to powder poha in a grinder and add it to the mashed veggies. Alternately you can use sattu (roasted gram flour), bread crumbs, gram flour (besan) or rice flour. If using besan or rice flour, it has to be dry roasted first so the patties don’t smell the raw flour in them. When I made this post I used rice flour as I did not have any other ingredients so I roasted it well in a pan and then cooled it. Then added to the mashed veggies.

For crumb coating

Crumb coating can be done with panko crumbs, bread crumbs, poha or even with cornflakes. But there is reduced mess with panko crumbs and bread crumbs. If you want to make your veggie patty completely bread-free then simply use poha for coating as well for binding. You can check the step-by-step photos for coating with poha on my veg cutlet post here. Bread crumbs or panko crumbs: Panko crumbs are best for crumb coating. These are different from the bread crumbs. Panko are lighter, flakier than the normal bread crumbs so they giver crunchier texture to the patties. These also absorb less oil than the normal regular bread crumbs. If you do not have panko, then use regular bread crumbs. If you do not have bread crumbs too, then simply toast 4 to 6 slices of bread on a tawa until slightly crisp so they lose their moisture. Tear them and add to a grinder jar. Simply pulse them to get coarse crumbs. Do not make fine powder. Avoid using fresh crumbs for crumb coating as they don’t give the best crisper results. Flour vs eggs to make batter: Most crunchy patties are dipped in beaten egg before crumb coating. Since this is a vegetarian burger recipe, I have used gram flour (besan) to make the batter as a replacement to egg. You can easily replace this with any flour of your choice. The idea is just to dip the burger patties in batter and then bread them with the crumbs. Here are some best choices – gram flour, chickpea flour, rice flour, corn starch/ white corn flour, all-purpose flour or wheat flour. If you want to use egg as a replacement for batter, then simply beat the egg until well mixed and then dip the patty into it & then bread them. But note that these patties cannot be pan fried as the eggs won’t cook well from the sides of the patties. So these patties need more oil in the pan.

Buns for veggie burger

You can use any kind of burger buns you like. This is a very old post on the blog I would then use the fresh baked whole meal sprouted flour buns from a nearby bakery. Recently I have moved out to the wholegrain sourdough breads and burgers. Brioche bun, Sesame buns, Multigrain buns & ladi pav are some of the choices. Basically you can use any kind of burger bun that you like. The most important thing is you must really like the taste of the buns you use, only then you will enjoy the burger. If you do not have any kind of buns, you can still make this recipe – use thick slices of your favorite bread and make a sandwich burger.

For burger dressing

Sauce: Burger sauce is usually a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup to which some additional ingredients are added for flavor. By far, mayonnaise is the widely used and is always there in burgers. If you are comfortable using store bought mayo go ahead and use it. But unfortunately, store bought mayonnaise is loaded with oil, it be with eggs or without eggs. So an easy and healthy substitute is greek yogurt (dairy or vegan). The other options are cream cheese, pesto, Indian green chutney, hummus or avocado mayo. In this post I have used homemade yogurt which I used after straining it to remove the whey. This is the most loved one at home and trust me you will love this and won’t know this is yogurt as it is flavoured with olive oil, garlic, chilli and mustard. Add-ins for flavor: Most high-end burger joints have their own special sauce which they slather on the burgers. But most of us will be surprised to know this is nothing but a mix of mayo and ketchup with some add-ins for flavor. Black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, sweet pickle relish, Dijon mustard & Worcestershire sauce are some of the ingredients that totally transform the mayo and ketchup to a finger-licking addictive sauce. My burger sauce is simply a mixture of yogurt, garlic, mustard, olive oil, black pepper, chilli flakes and lemon juice. But this is healthier and taste super delicious, no less than the sauce slathered in burger-joints. To upgrade my sauce in the recipe, simply use taco seasoning or use garlic powder and onion powder both.

Pro Tips

Steaming vegetables: Vegetable for a veggie patty need to be cooked until fork tender and not mushy or too soft. So the best option is to steam them in a steamer, cooker or a regular pot. They can also be boiled in a pot with some water if you are willing to baby sit them. But keep checking so they don’t overcook & soak up lots of moisture. Adding binders: Do not add flour or bread crumbs to hot veggies. Adding them to hot veggies will make the mixture pasty and sticky. Cool them completely and then mash. Add the binder like poha, bread crumbs and roasted gram flour only after the vegetables cool down. Cheese: To add some cheese to your burger, place the cheese slice over the hot veggie patty. Spread burger sauce over the bottom slice of bun and then the veggies patty with cheese followed by onions and tomatoes, lastly lettuce. Slather some sauce over the top slice and place it over lettuce. Toppings: Guacamole, coleslaw, cream cheese, pineapple (fresh & grilled), potato chips, tortilla chips, hummus, avocado, pickled vegetables are some choices for toppings. A lot of burger joints have raw or grilled pineapple in their meat burgers. These really taste delicious adding a natural sweet and tang to your burger. Tortilla chips go well if your burger sauce has a taco seasoning included in it. I have given that in the notes section of the recipe card. Use thicker potato chips so they remain crisp for some time. You can also check my guacamole recipe here if you want to use it for topping.

Don’ts for burger recipe

Condiments: Avoid using too much of condiment like ketchup, chilli sauce & Dijon mustard directly in your burger as that’s going to kill the real flavours of your patty. Mix them with mayo or greek yogurt only as needed to flavour up the sauce. Lettuce: Do not use lettuce with water drippings, that’s going to make your burger wet and soggy. Let them rest on kitchen/ paper towels for a while before you dress the burger. Avoid putting lettuce on the hot patty. That’s will wilt the lettuce, take away its crunch and make it limpy.

Faqs

Common questions on burger recipe

How to add spinach to patties ? I use only baby spinach for our veggie patties. For this recipe you can use about 2 cups of fresh spinach. Remove the stalks and briefly saute them in a pan with 1 tsp oil until they wilt completely. Cool them and then fine chop and add to the boiled vegetables. If you want to use large amounts of spinach, then follow this hara bhara kabab recipe where I puree the sautéed spinach. How to use mushrooms for patties ? Sometimes I am left with just a handful of mushrooms which are not enough to make anything. So the mushrooms go in these patties. Do not use a lot of them. About ¾ cup sliced mushrooms (4 button mushrooms) are good enough. I sauté sliced mushrooms in oil until they wilt. Chop them to tiny pieces and add to the mashed veggies. Do not mash the mushrooms. We want the tiny bits of mushrooms in the patties. How to make a mushroom topping ? Melt 1 tablespoon butter and saute 1 tablespoon chopped garlic & 2 cups of mushrooms on a high flame just until the mushrooms wilt for about 3 to 4 mins. Sprinkle your favorite seasoning. Cool and top these on your lettuce. We mix it with burger sauce (mentioned in the recipe) and then top it over the lettuce.

How to grill veggie burger patties?

These veggie burger patties can be grilled in a preheated oven at 180 C for 20 mins. Prepare a baking tray with a parchment paper. Place the veggie patties on the baking tray. Drizzle some oil over them. Bake them for 20 mins checking them halfway. Adjust the baking time as needed until crisp. These won’t turn golden. If you want them golden, toast the crumbs in a pan first, cool & use for breading. You may also want to check this chicken burger recipe on the blog. Related Recipes

Recipe card

This burger recipe was first published in Feb 2016. Updated & republished in January 2021